Hundreds of tonnes of human body parts and dangerous waste from NHS patients has been stockpiled by a leading disposal company, sparking a major national incident.

Health and social care secretary Matt Hancock chaired a COBRA meeting last month and ordered £1m to be earmarked to help up to 50 NHS trusts, whose contracts with Healthcare Environment Services Ltd could collapse following enforcement action against the company by government regulators.

HSJ can reveal at HES’ Normanton site, excess waste levels had reached 350 tonnes in September, five times more than the company’s 70 tonne limit. This anatomical waste, which is made up of human body parts and surgical waste, has now been placed in fridges.

HES is also attempting to export 750 tonnes of pharmaceutical waste to Holland.

Affected trusts have been put on standby to store their waste at hospitals in specialist trailers provided by the government under emergency contingency plans agreed by the Cabinet Office. The plans have not yet been activated as the company is still continuing to collect waste.

According to the leaked documents in the last year, the Environment Agency has served 13 warning notices and two “compliance notices” on HES for not disposing of its waste within regulatory time frames.

Following a COBRA meeting on 13 September, Matt Hancock agreed that regulatory action against HES should go ahead, which “is expected to lead to imminent cessation of waste collection by HES.”

The affected trusts have been told to stop paying HES for contracts in which the stockpiling constitutes a breach.

Affected trusts include Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust, Calderdale and Huddersfield Foundation Trust, Northern Lincolnshire and Goole FT, Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, and East and North Hertfordshire Trust.

If HES goes out of business as a result of the enforcement action it would “significantly impact the management of waste within both hospital and primary care services across England”, the NHS England document states.

If HES and other incinerator companies do not co-operate with the contingency plans to destroy the excess NHS waste, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will use its powers to “force the co-operation of all parties”.

HES collects around 584 tonnes of “incineration-only” waste and 1,972 tonnes of non-hazardous waste per month from trusts.

In a statement the company said: ”Healthcare Environmental has highlighted the reduction in the UK’s high-temperature incineration capacity for the last few years. This is down to the ageing infrastructure, prolonged breakdowns and the reliance on zero waste to landfill policies, taking up the limited high-temperature incineration capacity in the market.

”Over the last year, this reduced incineration capacity has been evident across all of the industry and has affected all companies. Healthcare Environmental has been in discussion with the environmental regulators and has consistently highlighted these issues, whilst we have maintained service to all our clients. There has been no disruption to our customers’ services whilst we have been dealing with this issue.

”We are working closely with our various disposal sites, including utilising our own £13m new waste to energy facility to reduce the volume on site, whilst maintaining services.”

The £31m-turnover company controls around 20 per cent of the healthcare waste disposal market, and holds the sole contract servicing all NHS hospital sites in Scotland.

It is owned by Scottish businessman Garry Pettigrew.

Its most recent annual accounts saw it record a gross profit of £15.4m, with sales growing 18 per cent year on year.

A DHSC spokesman said: ”There is absolutely no risk to the health of patients or the wider public. We are monitoring the situation closely and have made sure that public services - including NHS trusts have contingency plans in place.”

NHS Improvement, NHS England and the Environment Agency were approached for comment.